I literally lose my breath when CNN's Michael Ware reports from Iraq

[trumad]

I don't blink--- I don't breath, I just sit there frozen while he describes what is going on in Iraq.

For instance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7yruTD3amk

[Nite Owl]

1. He's one of the best.

They also have a woman reporting too who is good. Never caught her name. Their reporting from Iraq is to be commended. Too bad the rest of the stuff they have can't be of the same quality.

[mod mom]

2. great line: anyone who is still in doubt (on whether it's a civil war) is

"suffering from the luxury of distance".

[Dhalgren]

3. Jesus...just, Jesus...

[Pawel K]

4. Everytime I watch him I wonder how they haven't fired him yet

I guess noone else has the balls to go over there so they have no other choice.

[europegirl4jfk]

12. They only hired him a while ago!

He wasn't a TV journalist but worked for TIME Mag and he is the guy who really infiltrated the insurgency in Iraq a few years ago. I know him from this time because they had him sometimes on CNN International in 2004 and 2005. He was already very outspoken back then. When CNN realized how well connected and knowledgeable he is on Iraq, they hired him as a correspondent.

This is from a PBS FRONTLINE Interview with him from 2005:

"Ware is unique among Western journalists for his extensive contacts within the insurgency. He is TIME Magazine's Baghdad bureau chief and has covered the war from the very beginning, entering Iraq before the invasion. Throughout his time there, he kept a personal video record of his travels."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/insurgency/interviews/ware.html

[Pawel K]

20. Very interesting, thanks for posting the info

I'm still shocked that CNN is allowing his reporting, it is too factual for a network.

[SCDem]

5. I like him and Christianne Annapour or whatever her name is

both top notch

[BelgianMadCow]

16. Always have loved Amanpour.

I got the sense she was against the CNN war drum but she never states it aloud. She has a conscience, it shows.

[Caoimhe]

6. He's had his nose broken a few times

It points one direction, his face another. I find it hard to not notice that first thing. I agree he is pretty honest with his reporting.

[Catherine Vincent]

8. I was wondering what the deal was with his nose.

But he is very good.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. He needs it broken one more time

I had my nose broken 6 times (youthful indiscretions, all, I assure you, but who can turn down a good brawl?). Every odd time it was crooked. Every even time it straightened up again. So, Ware needs it broken one more time to straighten it up. Seriously. I'm not kidding.

:-)

[cool user name]

19. My nose looks like that ...

It's been broken 11 times.

And yes, he's a hell of a reporter. One of the best.

[watercolors]

7. How can Iraq ever forgive us?

This administration has to pay, it cannot get away with what misery and devistation is has caused. I want to see them all in court charged with war crimes against the people of Iraq. I get so angry about the deaths and distruction!

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. Michael Ware and Lara Logan are the Halberstam and Sheehan of Iraq

There's no question about it. Once all the clowns in their embedded positions left town, the real journalists started doing their work. Ware and Logan - both foreign-born and educated - put the American media to shame.

[OneBlueSky]

11. frankly, we'd have been better off if we'd left Saddam in power . . .

he may have brutalized some of his citizens, but I think the current situation if far, far worse . . . at least under Saddam they had water and electricity, and the country wasn't contaminated with depleted uranium . . . it was a functioning society, something that they don't have since the US invasion and occupation . . .

Iraq reminds me of the quotation by an Army officer in Vietnam: "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" . . . same shit, different century . . .

[DesertRat]

13. OMG. Look at what we started.

Will the Iraqi people ever forgive us? :cry:

[Jack Rabbit]

14. "Michael Ware couldn't have put it more directly."

That man is a journalist.

[Straight Shooter]

15. I want Michael Ware to come home and another brave soul to take his place.

The strain is really beginning to show. Look at him. He's deteriorating right before our eyes, with each successive interview. His health is beginning to suffer. You can tell how much he cares, and it's killing him.

"The luxury of distance," indeed. Well said, Mr. Ware.

[europegirl4jfk]

21. He is in it over his head since a while now

I watched him on CNN International in 2004/2005 (he was with TIME mag back then) and I remember when he explained how he had gained the trust of the insurgent leaders in Falludja. He spent a lot of time with them and when he left they started to send him all these horrible videos when they blew up Americans or cut someone's head off. He was very affected by this stuff but he never stopped reporting.

[BuyingThyme]

17. He's amazing.

[spanone]

18. He's a treasure.

[lebkuchen]

23. He's an Aussie.

:)

[Califooyah Operative]

22. He's brutally honest.

the way it should be.

[LSK]

24. K&R

This needs to be viewed by everyone.